Green Cape lighthouse was constructed in 1883 and is made of concrete. It has an octagonal structure on a square base which made it easier to pour the concrete. It stands thirty metres high.

The bay to the south of the lighthouse is called Disaster Bay and there were many wrecks here before the lighthouse was built, perhaps because the point stands out a bit from the sweeping line of the coast. There was also a famous wreck in 1886 when the steamer Ly-ee-moon foundered on the rocks just below the lighthouse. The bosun and three seamen made it to shore as the ship broke in two. A keeper and some seamen managed to get a line to the fore section and rescued the fifteen people there but heavy seas prevented them reaching the aft section and it sunk overnight so that all seventy-one people on it drowned.